GAP (GPS) in logic: Sales down, shares up

Posted Aug 9th 2007 8:50AM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Forecasts, Gap Inc (GPS)

In a victory of hope over reason, shares in GAP (NYSE: GPS) are up 6% to $16.70 in pre-market trading. The

advance is odd because GAP's July same-store sales were off by 7%.

With the exception of its Banana Republic unit, which saw an increase of 4% in same-store sales compared to a drop of 1% in the same month last year, GAP had another rough month in the U.S. GAP North American dropped 6% on top of another 6% last year. Old Navy fell 9% compared to 5% in the same month in 2006.

GAP did announce that for the second quarter of fiscal 2007, the company expects diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis between 17 and 18 cents.

Thomson Financial had forecast GAP same-store sales to be down 4.9%. But, the guidance must have fired up Wall Street.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Tags: Banana Republic, BananaRepublic, GAP, GAP retail sales, GAP s-s-s, GAP same store sales, GapRetailSales, GapS-s-s, GapSameStoreSales, GPS, Old Navy, OldNavy, The Gap, TheGap